Crime

Trump Walk of Fame Star Smasher: ‘If I Must Go to Jail, I Will’

James Otis, whom Deadline Hollywood identifies as the man who allegedly destroyed Trump’s star in a pre-dawn incident, told the outlet that he has spoken to the Los Angeles Police Department and is weighing whether or when to turn himself in to authorities.

“I think I’ll have to handle the consequences of what I’ve done,” Otis told Deadline Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the incident. “I will gladly pay the money if I have to and if I must go to jail, I will.”

Repair work has already begun on Trump’s star, which the businessman and former host of NBC’s The Apprentice received in 2007. Breitbart News’s Adelle Nazarian was on scene Wednesday to speak with the repair crew.

The LAPD have not formally completed their investigation of the incident, but according to another report from Deadline’s Dominic Patten, the department will charge the person responsible with felony vandalism. The perpetrator could face up to three years in jail and a fine of $10,000 or more.

Trump’s star has repeatedly been vandalized since the businessman announced his presidential candidacy last summer. Vandals have drawn large “X”es, a mute button, and at one point, a swastika over the star, but this is the first instance in which the star has been outright destroyed.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce previously refused to consider activists’ pleas to remove Trump’s star from the Walk, with CEO Leron Gubler telling Breitbart News last year that once a Star is added, “it is considered a part of the historic fabric” of the landmark. The Chamber of Commerce has never removed a star from the Walk.

In a statement to Deadline Wednesday, Gubler said that he hoped the perpetrator “would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark.”

“Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property,” he said.

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